Home
by darkheart1992
Summary: "He's like a knight in shinning armor." ... "You are my home." ... "You stopped the rain Rukia, with you I was able to be happy and dream again."... "Welcome home, Ichigo."... IchigoXRukia One-shot, some mild cursing, Enjoy!


First oneshot, I have done for Bleach, I wrote this a while ago. I hope you like it! If you've read my other bleach fic, I do hope to update soon.

I don't own Bleach!

Enjoy~

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><p>"Alright class, I have a new assignment for you all." A collective groan resonated though out the class. "Now, now before you get too discouraged it has to do with the arts appreciation week, which is in a couple of weeks." Before the class could complain any farther, the teacher turned towards the chalk board. "In three weeks time I want each individual student to come up with a project that includes some sort of art, as in music, dance, paint you get the point and it is to be presented to the class. Let me remind you that this is an individual project, meaning you are to work by yourself. Anyway I'm giving you the rest of class time to work on it, so get to work. Oh one last thing, it should be something that is close to your heart. Have fun." The teacher said as she sat down at her desk, probably to grade and file papers away.<p>

The class which contained a certain brightly colored boy and a rather petite girl and of course all of their friends, all started talking about the newly assigned projects.

"This project sounds like so much fun!" The petite girl, Rukia, said towards her much taller friend, Ichigo.

"Eh, sounds stupid to me." Ichigo said, his chin in his palm. Rukia glared at him, her violet eyes flashing.

"It does not! We get to learn more about the people around us." Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"I couldn't give a rats ass Rukia, it's just a stupid project for a stupid grade that we don't even need." Rukia's glare intensified, if only looks could kill. Ichigo rolled his eyes again, he opened his mouth to add on to his rather mean and unsociable statement but the bell rang, signaling that the day was over. Dropping the small argument that the two had, Ichigo got up out of his seat after putting his notebook and pen away in his bag which he slung over his shoulder and waited for Rukia to gather all of her stuff.

"C'mon midget, let's go home." Rukia shot another glare at Ichigo's direction, but it wasn't nearly as deadly as the other one she shot at him before. The two of them walked out and into the busy hallway, and then walked into the bright sunny day. They were halfway home and walking in a long but comfortable silence when a question suddenly popped into Rukia's head.

"Ichigo what are you going to do?"

"For what?" Rukia kicked him in the shin, and promptly ignored the 'what the hell was that look for midget?' look that came her way.

"For the project you dumbass!"

"Oh, that… Nothing" Rukia gave him a look.

"What do you mean nothing?"

"Exactly what I said, I'm not doing it."

"That's stupid Ichigo! You have to!"

"Nope, I don't want to, especially if I don't need to."

"But Ichigo you have to!"

"I said no and that's that."

"Fine you asshole, but don't blame me when you get held back a year for not doing such a simple project." Ichigo sighed while rolling his eyes, over dramatic midget.

Ichigo sighed as he lay down in his bed; Rukia was in his sisters' room so he finally had some quiet time. He turned on his side and looked at the guitar his father had gotten for him some time ago, he had always wanted to learn the instrument, so when he received it he had asked Chad if he would be willing to teach him. Chad had of course said yes, and just like with everything else Ichigo learned the guitar at a rather fast pace, he had gotten rather good but lately with everything that had been going on he didn't really have the down time to play. Maybe, it was time to start it up again.

Rukia inwardly groaned as she stared at her math test, this was seriously her least favorite subject, deciding she needed a break from all these jumbled up numbers so she looked around the class room, and her eyes just so happened to land on her partner, it's been 2 ½ years already since that fateful encounter that changed both of their lives. Sometimes she thinks that one-day she's gong to wake up and this all will be just one long and vivid dream. But that's not the point, the point is, is that they know each other well, very well, so well that they can have a whole conversation with nothing but their eyes, so she would obviously know when he is up to something, and he is surely up to something. She already knows that he is too much of a geek to not do the assignment. But what gets her is why he won't tell her what he is going to do. Another thing that is puzzling her is that since the day after their new assignment every day at around 7 o'clock he would leave the house, carrying a strange shaped black case, (she found out from Yuzu that is was a guitar case) and not only that but he wouldn't ever let her go with him! (Which really made her angry). So now alls she has to do is figure out what he is doing, but how, is the question.

Ichigo grabbed his black guitar case and swung it over his shoulder so it was dangling from his right shoulder to his left waist. He double-checked to make sure he had his guitar picks in his right back pocket, which of course he did. He then proceeded to leave his room, but was stopped short because a certain little shorty was in his way, defiance written all over her.

"I'm going with you." She demanded, and Ichigo snorted.

"No you're not." She scowled.

"Yes. I. Am." Now it was his turn to scowl.

"No." He turned and began walking towards the stars. She growled.

"Why not?" He rolled his eyes.

"It's not any of your business."

"But Ichigo!"

"Just leave it Rukia, you'll find out later, now I have to go I'm late." Rukia pursed her lips and watched as he walked down the stairs and out of her sight.

Three weeks flew by because before Ichigo, or Rukia knew it, it was the day of the presentations. Ichigo had brought his guitar, and Rukia brought her sketchbook. Luckily for Ichigo it was going by last name.

Rukia glanced over at Ichigo who seemed to be reading the same piece of paper over and over again. Inwardly she giggled; perhaps the great Ichigo Kurosaki had stage fright.

"Kuchiki-chan is you could." The teacher said as she pointed to the front of the class, Rukia smiled brightly, clearly happy that it was her turn to present and practically skipped to the front of the class.

"As you know I am Rukia Kuchiki and for my art project I did a couple of sketches." She proudly held up her sketchbook. Ichigo couldn't help but snort to himself, she probably drew 5 pages of Chappy. "I know the rules said that it was recommended to only do one person, but I couldn't help but think of 5 people that are really important to me, so I drew my top 5." Ichigo didn't want to admit this but he really hoped he was in this top 5 of hers, cause if he wasn't he was surely gonna look like a fool when he went up to present his project.

Rukia flipped to the first sketch, it was of course a picture of a rabbit but it had long black hair, with little white things in its hair. The rabbit had a blank look on it's face, it also had it's arms crossed, standing next to that rabbit was another rabbit whom had light blonde almost grey color and looked sickly. Ichigo almost couldn't hold in his laughter.

"This is my brother, Byakuya. He is one of my important people because without him I probably wouldn't be standing right here in front of you all. Nor would I be where I am today. The other one is one of my very first teachers, Ukitake, he's sick most of the time but he still teaches me so many things." She turned to another page, one had flaming red hair and looked pissed. Ichigo almost flinched when he saw the other one, again it was a rabbit but this one had black spikey hair and had a smile on his face. That must have been painful to draw.

"These two people are also very close to me, the angry one is my childhood friend Renji. We've been through a lot together; most of it's been with laughs though. The other one was my mentor Kaien, he taught me so much, taught me things I couldn't learn in my other school. Sadly though he passed away a couple years ago. Before he left he told me something that has stuck with me since, he told me that when somebody passes away they leave a person their heart. Even though that was his last lesson to me, it's been one of my favorites."

She flipped to the next page, and Ichigo decided that he didn't want to see the last one so he turned his head to stare out the window, shit, he was gonna look like a fool.

"This I'm sure you can guess is our very own carrot-top." Ichigo stopped staring out the window and shot a glance towards Rukia's drawing, which he quickly looked away from. The rabbit (what a surprise another rabbit) had orange spikey hair, with a smirk on it's face, it also had a black robe and strapped to it's back was a huge knife. "Now you're probably wondering why I drew him this way, honestly I don't really know, I guess I always pictured him as a 'knight in shinning armor' type. Even if he is a huge jerk, he'd do anything for his friends. He's taught me a lot from our friendship these past few years and he's changed my life and I'm really grateful for that." She gave a bright smile shut her book and skipped back to her seat.

Rukia sat down and looked at Ichigo to see him very red in the face. Rukia smirked at him and he turned and glared at her, he was about to say something to try to get back his pride but the teacher called him up next.

Ichigo groaned and stood up, he walked to the back of the classroom and grabbed his guitar case. He brought it up with his to the front of the classroom, grabbed an empty chair and sat it in the front right in the middle. He took the guitar out and sat down in the seat.

"Name's Ichigo Kurosaki, and for the art project I wrote a song for my special person it's called 'Home'."

"They say home is where the heart is

but I for one didn't believe it,

because my heart died a long time ago,

along with all my hopes and dreams,

of one day being happy.

Then suddenly out of no where you came

Crashing into my life and rearranging the pieces

It was then when I saw your smiling face

That's when I knew,

You have my heart

You have my hopes and dreams and most of all you are my home."

Rukia couldn't believe it, not only could he play the instrument (from the small amount of knowledge that she did have on said thing) really well but he had a nice soothing voice. But one little question kept popping into her mind, who was this song for?

"I didn't think I could ever be that happy again.

It sounded almost impossible,

but you make me happy,

you turned my world upside down.

The day I almost lost you

I remember it oh so well

it's a day I wish I could forget."

Since Ichigo had first started to sing he had been staring at his guitar too nervous to look up and see everybody staring at him, but since he was getting to the end of the song he decided to chance looking up and ended up locking eyes with Rukia.

But I have you now, and I'll fight for you again.

Because without you,

I would have no home to go to anymore,

Because you are my home,

You have my heart,

You have my hopes and dreams

And most of all you are my home.

And most of all you are my home."

Rukia felt a blush spread across her checks as Ichigo finished his song, still staring at her. The class erupted in cheers as Ichigo broke the contact to stand up and put his guitar away and placed the chair back to where he took it from, he got back to his seat, not once looking in Rukia's direction.

Time flew by for both Ichigo and Rukia and before either of them realized the bell had rung for class to end and for everybody to go home, so they packed up their stuff and started heading back to the Kurosaki residence. There feet hit the pavement and a silence wrapped around them, but this one wasn't like their normal silence, it had an almost uncomfortable feel to it. Neither one wanting to break it but they knew they had to talk about what happened. Rukia bit her lip sighed.

"Ichigo about.."

"Rukia about.." They said simultaneously, they both looked away from each, Ichigo rubbed the back of his head and Rukia fiddled with the hem of her skirt. Finally after another uncomfortable pause Ichigo cleared his throat.

"You can go first." Rukia looked at him through her lashes.

"Are you sure?" Ichigo nodded his head, looked away and again scratch the back of his neck. Damn, her eyes.

Rukia thought about what she wanted to say before she said it, perhaps beating around the bushes.. Replacing it with a friend instead of herself.. She mentally shook her head, listen to this the Great Rukia Kuchiki, thinking about beating around the bush. She wasn't a coward before and she's not going to start now.

"Who was the song for?" She inwardly flinched; maybe she shouldn't have been so blunt.

"Why the hell do you care?" Ichigo shot back.

"I don't! I just wanna know!"

"Then why did you ask?" Rukia growled.

"Of course I wanna know you dumbass!"

"Don't call me that, you idiotic midget!"

"Don't call me a midget, strawberry!"

"I'm not a damn strawberry!"

"You were during class today!" Both of them had froze at Rukia's last comment, neither of them realized how close they were to each other, nose to nose. Ichigo cleared his throat, and righted his posture.

"I was not." Rukia smirked.

"Were too, it was when I did my presentation." He mumbled his reply, and Rukia's smirk grew.

"What was that, I didn't hear you strawberry." She said in a sing-song voice, and he glared at her.

"You gave me too much credit." She raised an eyebrow.

"The hell do you mean?"

"I'm not a knight Rukia." She rolled her eyes.

"Geez normal people like being called knights." She looked at Ichigo her eyes locked onto his. "You've rescued me so many times, not only that but you've helped me too. I mean where would I be if you hadn't infiltrated Soul Society for me? And don't forget about Orihime either, when we went to Hueco Mundo. So to me, you'll always be a knight, a rather arrogant, idiotic strawberry knight, but a knight nonetheless." Ichigo blushed and turned away from her unwavering gaze. He awkwardly cleared his throat.

"You've been reading too many of Yuzu's romance mangas'." Rukia pouted.

"Have not." They both looked away from each other, small blushes decorated their faces. "Anyway, about your song." Rukia trailed off as Ichigo groaned. "It's only fair." Ichigo groaned and sighed.

"You stopped the rain, Rukia." He said as he locked his gaze with hers. "You changed my life, when my mom died, I had lost all hope and dreams. Then I meet you and you turned my life upside down, and once again I was happy. When you were taken I almost gave up." He chuckled. "But Urahara set me straight and I went to go save you. Then you had wanted to stay, and I felt as though everything was gone, I didn't feel at home anymore. But then you came back, and I felt at peace, I felt like I was home." Rukia blushed and Ichigo looked away again, a blush also decorating his face. It was Rukia's turn to clear her throat.

"Ichigo," He looked at Rukia, who was motioning for him to come down to her level. Rolling his eyes he bent at his waist and was just a little higher then her eye level. Rukia went up to her tip toes and whispered in his ear:

"You're my home too Ichigo." Ichigo looked at her and smiled, a rare genuine smile and Rukia did the same. He placed his forehead against hers.

"Welcome home, Ichigo."

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><p>Welp there you go! That's the oneshot! I hope you enjoyed!<p>

Darkehart1992


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